north west 'The children were
highly engaged and enthralled' -
Y6 teacher
manchester

This workshop is
designed to cover the Evolution and Inheritance
unit of the Science National Curriculum for year 6. There are
three workshops, which focus on inheritance, the tree of life, and adaptation.

These fascinating and
important topics are brought to vivid life using hands-on
activities, scientific puzzles, wildlife films, photos, numerous
realistic models of animals and plants, games, and simulations
of genetic inheritance. These
challenging and enjoyable activities will help children grasp
these vital concepts and provide a memorable day of learning.

2. Learn about evolution
and the tree of life by playing two games - placing
models of extinct animals on a large board showing the main
branches of life over time, and in teams placing fossils on a
similar tree.

3. Learn about adaptation
via films, games, photos, and natural objects such as fossils, and by identifying (in teams) the
adaptive features of realistic models of
animals

Tiktaalik, a transitional animal
showing the link from fish to four-legged creatures

4. Learn about
transitions in evolution via a team game, and the
adaptive reasons for such transitions (e.g. the development of
legs in fish so as to allow movement on land and escape from sea
predators etc.)

5. Learn about how
evolution works by doing a simulation of the effects of
camouflage with the peppered moth and seeing why it changed
colour during the 1800s.

1. Learn about inheritance
and variation by looking at family photos, and
using 'gene' cards, dice, and puzzles to show how features are
passed on through generations

2. Learn how genes
work together to produce outcomes via the cat fur colour
activity

3. Review concepts of species
and their groupings, using films, photos and team
games

4. Learn about evolution
and the tree of life by playing two games - placing
models of extinct animals on a large board showing the main
branches of life over time, and in teams placing fossils on a
similar tree.

5. Learn about adaptation
via films, games, photos, and natural objects such as fossils, and by identifying (in teams) the
adaptive features of realistic models of
animals

This option allows children to learn a
'bit of everything' without the same depth in each subject which
is possible in the other two options.

1. Learn about inheritance
and variation by looking at family photos, playing
a 'match the children and parents' game, and
using 'gene' cards, dice, photos and puzzles to show how features are
passed on through generations. Includes a look at twins.

2. Learn how genes
work together to produce outcomes via the cat fur colour
activity.

This option takes a more in
depth look at inheritance. Compared to the previous option,
there are more activities and more time on each activity,
allowing children to get a better grasp of this difficult
subject. Suitable for more able classes.

Introduction

Before 1859, many scientists had accepted the
theory of evolution - the idea that living things had changed
through time, branching into many groups and species and
creating the astonishing diversity of life today. The fossil
record made it clear that many creatures different from those of
today had lived long ago and died out, and yet had left
descendants which possessed some of those ancient features.
However, it was not understood HOW evolution worked.

Then Charles Darwin published 'The
Origin of Species' - a book which changed the world
through its revolutionary yet compelling idea that life had
evolved through natural selection. Darwin proposed that in the
struggle for life, most animals could not survive to reproduce
and raise offspring. Any organisms which inherited features
which gave them an advantage over others - such as a slightly
longer neck in a giraffe, or sharper teeth in a lion - had a
greater chance of survival, and so of passing on these features
to their offspring. In time these better adapted features should
increase in a population, and so eventually new species would
arise.

That in a nutshell is the theory of natural
selection, now accepted as fact by virtually all scientists. Along
with modern genetics it is the basis for a true understanding of
life on earth.

Watch a short film I made showing the diversity
of life on earth. This film is shown at the start of the
workshop to inspire children to wonder how such
amazing diversity arose. I have spent many hours in parks, zoos
and natural areas, filming numerous types of animals, in order
to make a wide variety of such films. They will mainly be used
to teach children about the many forms of adaptation in the
living world.

Please note that this means we will need your
whiteboard to be functioning well, with good visibility.

2. How species are grouped into
hierarchies (e.g. dinosaurs are reptiles, which are vertebrates,
which are animals).

3. The tree of life - how
animals and plants evolved over millions of years forming a
many-branched tree with numerous classes and species, each with
distinctive features

4. Adaptation - how many of the
features of living things are adaptations to their environments,
helping them survive and reproduce in various ways (e.g. flippers
helping dolphins and whales to swim, peacocks' feathers attracting
peahens, spines protecting hedgehogs from predators).

5. Inheritance and variation -
how offspring inherit qualities from their parents, and yet vary
slightly from them (e.g. children look similar to their parents, and
perhaps have similar skills or personalities)

Fossils for sale

Children can
buy genuine fossils at all science workshops. These include sharks'
teeth (see below), ammonites, seashells, corals, plants and more. Dinosaur
and other animal
toys and stickers may also be available.
Prices range from 10p up to £2.

We begin with a question: why
are there so many species of living thing? About 1.5 million are known, and according to
some estimates
there are over
10 million in all.

We discuss the idea that all living species have
evolved over a vast period of time: they have changed in order to
adapt to their environments. This began about 4 billion years ago
with tiny bacteria and continues today. This leads us to an
astounding fact - all living things are related.

The first person to explain how evolution worked
was Charles Darwin. This workshop is all about the how and why of
evolution - the tree of life and adaptation.

Next is a quick look at how animals are
classified into groups - which themselves have evolved. We look at a
few important animal phyla - cnidarians
(jellyfish, corals, sea anemones), molluscs
(squids, shellfish, snails), arthropods (insects,
spiders, scorpions, centipedes), and vertebrates
(fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds). Each of these groups
is very different from the others, but all are related, although
their common ancestors lived over 600 million years ago.

2. The Tree of Life (45 minutes)

We look at a large painted board (60x200cm, see below) which shows a
simplified tree of life - the branches which show the relationships
through time between the four phyla we have already looked at, as
well as the main branches of vertebrates (fish, birds, mammals, etc.
but also dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and primates). The
geological periods and their dates are also marked, going back 660my (my=million years). For a detailed page on this topic go here.

To learn about the tree and the periods of
earth's history, children play a game: they are
given a model of a prehistoric animal such as a dinosaur or
ammonite. They are told its age in millions
of years, and they must place it on the board in the right place -
the right period and the right branch.

There follows a short quiz to
enrich understanding - for example working out the period in which a
type of animal first evolved (e.g. dinosaurs in the Triassic), or
the ancestral history of modern groups (e.g. humans are apes
descended from primates, then from mammals, reptiles, tetrapods, and
fish).

Finally children work in their 8 teams with
their own tree of life picture (click photo
above). They must place 6 fossils (dinosaur bone, trilobite,
ammonite, shark tooth, coral, crocodile tooth - see photo below) on
the tree in the right place, and answer some more questions about
the tree. This will enrich their understanding of the history of
evolution.

Click for larger version

Ammonite, Dactylioceras commune, from
Whitby: 190 my

Trilobite from USA: 500 my, and crocodile tooth:
80 my

3. Adaptation (60+ minutes)

Why do species have their particular features?
Why have birds evolved feathers, and fish fins? We now look at adaptation
- the countless ways in which animals have changed through evolution
to survive and reproduce in their environments.

Spoonbill - it swishes its strange bill through
the water, sensing and grabbing food

First we watch 3 short films (which I have made
myself). These illustrate a few of the most important kinds of
adaptation - for feeding, moving,
and sensing.

After each film we discuss the
various ways in which animals have adapted for that purpose. Then
children look at three high quality, realistic animal models they
have on their tables. Each group picks one and explain to the class
how it is adapted for feeding, moving or sensing, depending on which
film we have just watched. For example, they could explain how a
tiger has sharp teeth and claws for killing prey, how a whale has
evolved flippers for swimming, or how an eagle has developed very
keen eyesight for spotting prey. Each group has a sheet of
information on the animals to help them.

4. Further Adaptation Activities

Now this children (or the teacher) choose more activities to learn about other types of adaptation.
We can continue this after lunch.

Options:

a. Film about raising babies

b.Camouflage game
- look at photos and try to spot the animal, whether predator or
prey (this is usually the next activity as it is very popular!)

Spot the spider (click for larger version)

c. Mimicry game - look at
photos of animals (butterflies, frogs, wasps). Try to work out
whether they belong to an unpalatable (poisonous) species, or are
palatable mimics which have evolved to look like the unpalatable
species, so as to avoid being eaten.

d. Evolution of Colour Vision
- watch a short film to show how animals at first saw without
colour, and then how the world looked different when colour vision
evolved. Why would this be a useful adaptation?

At the time of the dinosaurs, mammals were
nocturnal (to avoid being eaten!) and so lost colour vision (which
does not work at night and may actually impair night vision). The
film shows how a cat sees the world at night - much more brightly
than we do.

Night vision of a human (top) and cat (bottom)

Colour vision in primates

About 30 million years ago, primates regained
full colour vision, which is why we have it but most mammals do not.
We try an experiment to try to learn why this happened - comparing
photos of fruit trees with fruit which is red when ripe, and leaves
which are red when younger and juicier.

A cherry tree as a colour blind monkey would see
it (top) and as we see it (bottom) - click for larger version

5. Transitions (after lunch)

We now put together our learning about the
tree of life and adaptation by looking at important transitions in
evolution. Children play a game in which they order pictures of five
types of animal, to show how changes occurred over time. In each
case palaentologists have identified an important transition fossil
which we will look at.

The four types of animal and the relevant
changes are:

a. Tetrapods - how fish evolved legs and
became the first four legged land animals (from which all others,
including oursleves, are descended).

b. Dinosaurs - how four legged reptiles
became bipedal, with legs straight down instead of spread sideways,
leading to the extremely successful dinosaur group

c. Birds - how two legged therapods
(predatory dinosaurs) evolved feathers and wings and eventually
became modern birds

Archaeopteryx - a candidate for the first
bird

d. Whales - how four-legged mammals took
to the water in search of prey and eventually lost their digits,
evolving flippers and becoming whales and dolphins

After this children try to work out the
adaptive reasons for each transition. For example, larger brains
helped humans survive better in severak ways, such as the ability to
communicate important information such as where to find food, or
which foods are poisonous. We look at some photos and models to help
us understand these transitions - such as replicas of
Australopithecus and modern human skulls.

6. Camouflage Experiment

Next, we reenact the famous case of the evolution of the peppered
moth. In the early 1800s this moth was a light, mottled colour (see
below), camouflaged against the lichen-covered bark of trees in
England.

By the
end of the 19th century, in areas like Manchester, this form of the
peppered moth had been almost entirely replaced by a darker mutant
(see below). The reason was that industrial pollution had darkened
the trees, so the lighter moths were no longer camouflaged and were
being eaten by birds.

Children pretend to be a bird predator and try to spot the two
varieties of moth on light and dark tree backgrounds. By comparing
the numbers of moths seen, we will work out how evolution occurred
in this situation.

This activity gives children an experimental understanding of how
camouflage works, and it also gives us an introduction to the
important concept of natural selection - the mechanism by which
evolution works.

7. Alien Evolution Game

If time
allows, we play a fun game to finish the day. Each team is given one of 8 habitats and
invents either a predator or prey animal, adapted both to its
environment and to other animals. For example a cheetah is the
fastest four legged animal with many adaptations to help it chase
its prey, such as a very long and flexible spine. However, its
prey, the Thompson's gazelle, is also one of the fastest animals
on land and has evolved this speed to escape cheetahs.

Creature from the movie Avatar

The twist in this game is that we imagine we have
travelled to another planet, so children can create brand new
creatures - as long as they are properly adapted. They use marker pens and
large sheets of paper to create their animals, and then present them to
the class. With fossil prizes for the best presentation.

In this workshop you can give your children a bit of
everything. We look at inheritance in the morning, then turn to the
(conceptually easier) topics of the tree of life and adaptation in the
afternoon. The afternoon session is similar to the morning session of
the
adaptation
workshop - we cover activities 1-4 (see description above)

In the morning we look at inheritance,
focusing on the mechanism
of inheritance
- chromosomes, genes, and the Mendelian laws of inheritance.

These vitally important ideas are difficult, so I have
carefully crafted activities which will help children and teachers get
to grips with them. To bring the concepts to life, and make them more
fun, we use photos, dice, counters and cards, in a variety of games and
simulations.

1. First we discuss inheritance - how we
resemble our parents both physically and in our behaviour and
personality.

Game- identify children from their
parents. In 8 teams, children try to assign photos of children to photos of their parents (including both famous and non-famous families).
We discuss how similar children are to their mothers and fathers,
and why this might be (if time is short we will omit this game)

2.
Genetics - we take a (simplified) look
at how inheritance works, by means of chromosomes and genes, which
come in pairs (called alleles).

photo
of a chromosome - the DNA strands are visible

Sex Chromosomes

We look at how X and Y chromosomes are inherited to
determine gender, using cards, counters and dice (see below).
Children learn why half the world's population is male and half
female, and yet in any one family there may be only boys or only
girls - a matter of probability. Each team randomly creates a
family of four using dice and we look at patterns across the
class. We compare these data to the figures for the school, and
the UK as a whole.

Genes

Next we focus on genes. Gregor Mendel's experiments on
peas showed us how traits are caused by indivisible factors called
genes, which come in pairs. One of the pair is
often dominant- so a pea flower with a purple
gene (P) and a white gene (p) will end up purple, as the purple
gene is dominant.

The genotype for this flower is either PP or Pp
- both result in a purple colour

The genotype for this flower must be pp (two
recessive genes)

Using gene cards and dice we look at how a plant or
animal inherits half of its genes from its mother and half from
its father, but the halves are randomly selected from all the
pairs of alleles. This is why two siblings can be very different
from each other.

3. Cat
Fur Colour

For
the rest of the morning session we look at the inheritance
of coat colour in cats. Cat
colour is caused by several genes, which combine to produce an end
result (the 'phenotype'). For example, a cat with the dominant
white spotting gene and one dominant orange gene, if female, will
usually be a white tortoiseshell (see below) - usually, because
other genes can modify this pattern.

First we look at how the 'white spotting' gene (S) and
the 'orange' gene (O) work separately. In each case after a
demonstration children work in their groups, first working
out the genotype of cats in photos, using counters instead of
letters to help make the concept clear.

As we see in the first cat above, a cat with one
dominant white spotting gene and one recessive gene (Ss) will be
less than half white (we assume the other colour is black for
now). A cat with two dominant genes (SS) will be mostly white. A
cat with two recessive genes will have no white (here, all black).

After this the teams use counters and cat phenotype cards to see
what possible kittens come from parents with different genotypes.
Children answer questions to help them grasp important features of
inheritance - namely, how parental genotypes affect:

the
chance of different types of offspring

the chance of offspring being different from their
parents

the amount of variation in offspring

Next, we look at how the white and orange genes have a
combined effect. Again children solve photo puzzles. For example,
a cat with Ss and Oo genes will be a tortoiseshell with some white
patches (the first cat below):

In this workshop we spend the whole day on
inheritance, allowing children to get a much deeper understanding of
this tricky subject.

We carry out all the inheritance
activities described in the
adaptation and inheritance lesson, spending a
little more time to ensure depth of understanding. In addition we
have several more activites:

1. Simulation of
6 gene inheritance

After looking at the Mendelian model of
how genes work, we use a diagram, playing cards (standing for
genes), and dice to see how one baby might inherit 6 genes in a
certain pattern, which might be different form its siblings. We
randomise the inheritance of each allele and see how similar and
different siblings can be from each other and also from their
parents.

2. Twins

After the family game (at the start of the
lesson), we look how identical twins share all their genes while
non-identical twins share about 1/2 (like ordinary siblings).

Children play a game in
which they sort 3 groups of photos - identical twins, non-identical
twins, and unrelated friends. This teaches them how physical
appearance is largely inherited, and how siblings can look very
similar but also very different, because of the random mix of genes
they get from their mothers and fathers. Includes the amazing
case of the twins who appear to be of different races.

3. Cat Fur Colour Extension Activity

After looking at the interaction between the two fur colour genes (white
spotting and orange), children are taught how to lay out the 16 possible kittens resulting from two
parents. The photo below shows the board used by each team -
similar to the tables used by scientists to work out gene
combinations, known as Punnett Squares. Again teams answer
questions about inheritance and variation in offspring.

The most interesting outcome of
this activity is the fact that 2 parent cats can produce kittens with
up to 9 different coat patterns. This is a vivid demonstration of
genetic variation.

4. Mutation

We finish the day with a look at the vital importance of
mutation in evolution.

The inheritance activities have shown children how genes combine to
produce offspring which are similar to, but often different from,
their parents - and their siblings too. This variation due to
recombination of genes is part of what allows natural
selection to take place.

But on its own, it is not enough.Our genes have been passed down through millions of
generations, back to the earliest animals which walked on land,
and the fish which came before them (and all the way back to the
first living thing). And yet we are not fish! If genes are copied
each generation, how can there be so many different species? Where
do new genes come from to create new adaptations?
The answer is mutation.

Very
occasionally a gene mutates, due to copying errors, radiation, or
other reasons. Usually this has no effect. Sometimes it is
harmful, and the animal often dies before passing the gene on.
However, on rare occasions the mutant gene is helpful - for
example it may give a giraffe a longer neck. A mutation such as
this is what allows natural selection to work.

The Tree of Life Activity /strong>- children place animals on the board to
learn the evolutionary relationships between groups,the geological periods, and the vast extent
of the history of life.

'The children really enjoyed the day and seemed to gain a lot from it (especially from such a difficult subject to grasp). Your resources and knowledge were excellent and children really liked the consistent fossil
rewards; this really piqued their interest. I'd like to thank you for your hard work throughout
the day and your flexibility during the booking progress.
I will be in contact again.' - Andrew Pritchard, Alvanley Primary,
Cheshire

'Thank you for delivering 'Evolution Part 1' to our Year 6. The
children really enjoyed it and can not wait for Part 2. We all had
an excellent day. The content matched both the Science and the
History framework and it was delivered with your usual expertise.
The practical activities furthered the childrens' understanding and
they were highly engaged and enthralled. We are all looking forward
to Session 2.' - Debbie Fitzpatrick, St Aidan's Catholic Primary
School, Manchester

'Mr
North has just delivered the 'Evolution' workshops (Adaptation and
Natural Selection)
to my class and they were both fantastic. Mr North's impressive
subject knowledge combined with his extensive range of resources
enabled him to engage and motivate all pupils from the start. The
activities were highly interactive and fun and pupils were really
challenged to think deeply about this complex topic of evolution.
Effective questioning and dialogue enhanced the learning at all
times throughout the sessions and the great organisation meant the
active learning time was maximised. I cannot recommend these
workshops highly enough as Mr North is truly an expert on the
topic.' -
Andrea Toal, Year 6 teacher, St. Richard's RC Primary, Longsight

'Tony
North visited my Year 6 class to teach us all about Evolution and
Inheritance. As teachers, we felt this may be a very difficult unit
to
teach as it is a broad unit and new to the curriculum. Tony worked
for
us for two full days, teaching us about Adaptation and Natural
Selection.

Day
one was thoroughly enjoyable and the children could not wait for
Tony to return. The children were introduced to Charles Darwin and
his
theory of Evolution. They worked in small groups understanding and
participating in numerous activities related to Evolution and
Inheritance. All of these activities were engaging for the children.
As well as this, Tony rewarded the children with real fossils for
answering questions.

In
particular, the children loved the activity
the "Tree of Life". This gave them the opportunity to learn about
the
evolution of animal groups over millions of years including
identifying fossils and also placing them on the "Tree of Life".
Lastly we ended the day with a carousel of activities. The children
experienced the effects of camouflage, the evolution of birds,
grouping carnivores and herbivores and ordering extinct and modern
animals to learn about transitions in evolution. Subsequently, the
children gained a much wider bank of knowledge related to
adaptation.

Day 2
consisted of learning all about inheritance and natural selection.
This day
started off much more complex, however, the children were highly
engaged throughout. Tony created fantastic, hands on games for all
abilities to develop a further understanding. We did this through
genes, inheritance, chromosomes and cells. The children found it
very
fascinating that 37 trillion cells were in their body. The "Cat Fur
Colour" activity was the children's favourite. This made it very
easy
for them to understand how cats pass on different genes to their
offspring.' - Miss K Hegarty, Year 6 teacher,
St Richards RC Primary School, Longsight